Minister grilled at Special Criminal Court over 770m FCFA

Jean Pierre Biyiti Bi Essam, Minister of Post and Telecommunication was Wednesday Dec. 3, grilled at the Special Criminal Court relating to how he managed state funds allocated for media coverage of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Cameroon in March 2009.

Bi Essam was then Minister of Communication. He has been interrogated on several occasions by the judicial police prior to appearing before the Special Criminal Court, for attempting to embezzle the money.

An initial investigation into the matter by the Financial Investigation Agency (ANIF) had revealed that Bi Essam had on 26 February and 10 March 2009 respectively deposited the sums of 60MFCFA and 70MFCA into his private account at SGBC bank. During the investigation, the Minister disclosed that he deposited the money in his private account to secure it because the money was disbursed from the Ministry of Finance in liquid cash and not in cheques as expected.

The Special Criminal Court also wanted to know how the total sum of 770MFCA disbursed by the state for media coverage on the occasion was used.

Bi Essam said, of this amount, 450M was given to CRTV. CAMTEL, He said, received 140M to provide optic links, SOPECAM received 40M and the Ministry of Communication had 140M.

Four giant screens according to the Minister were rented from a company in Gabon at the cost of 70M and were placed at strategic points in Yaounde to serve for the broadcast of the Pope’s mass. Since nothing was given to the private press, he needs to account for how the remaining 70M of the 140M allocated to his Ministry for the event was used.